Symposium Questions The Role Of Women In Catholic Church Ordaining Women As Priest Prevalent Topic Of Discussion

February 17, 1989|By CAROL BRZOZOWSKI, Staff Writer

Bishop Thomas Grady of the Diocese of Orlando said he does not see the ordination of women ``happening in the near future`` in the Roman Catholic Church.

Grady, the only Florida bishop to serve on the bishops` committee for the U.S. Bishops Pastoral Letter on the Concerns of Women, made the remark during an academic symposium on ``Women in the Church`` on Wednesday at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary.

``Things tend to move very slowly,`` Grady said, pointing out as an example a newly released papal document that condemns racism.

The first draft of the U.S. bishops` pastoral letter on women was released in April after months of response -- primarily from women -- from dioceses throughout the United States.

The document fell short of recommending the ordination of women as priests, although it recommended the study of ordaining women as deacons. It also proclaimed sexism as sinful.

But whether the Roman Catholic Church is discriminating against women was the core of debate among contributors to the document and those who attended Wednesday`s symposium.

Joining Grady for the academic symposium at the seminary were Sister Carolyn Osiek, a professor of New Testament studies at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and author of Beyond Anger: On Being a Feminist in the Church and Sister Mariella Frye, a staff member of the Committee for a Pastoral Responding to Women`s Concerns of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

One woman in the audience expressed disdain that in the first draft of the pastoral letter on women, those who agreed with church practices were called ``voices of affirmation,`` while those who expressed disagreement were labeled ``voices of alienation.``

Grady said those phrases were being omitted for the final draft.

Topics discussed during the question-and-answer session of the symposium included theological reasons for and against ordaining women and language used to describe God.

``When we talk of inclusive language, we have to talk of both genders. The problem now is that it`s been exclusively male,`` Osiek said. ``We simply cannot say that God transcends gender and continue to talk of God as a `he` and then tell women to disregard that. Language doesn`t work that way. Language works in terms of human images and human experiences.``

One argument against restricting ordination to men is that decision-making in the church and power is seen as related to ordained positions.

``We connect ordination with power,`` Grady said. ``Ordination means to be a servant to people. The answer to that has been, `Well, that hasn`t been my experience.`

``If there could be a jurisdictional separation from the sacramental, we could have a situation where people could be in the position of power or decision-making without being sacramentally ordained.``

Responding to a question of whether Jesus ever ordained anyone, Osiek said: ``In the sense in which we mean ordination, no,`` adding that Jesus did appear to designate people to represent him. ``To say Jesus ordained anyone is putting a later theology into earlier times.``

One woman asked why ordination is gender-restrictive when Jesus did not select members of various ethnic groups who today are represented in the priesthood.

Grady offered three theological reasons why women are not ordained: that church tradition holds that Jesus apparently did not choose women to represent him, that the priest is standing in for the person of Christ when he celebrates Mass and that the priest to people relationship is seen as one of ``spousal love.``

``I don`t think there are good theological reasons,`` Osiek said in response. ``The reasons are following a practice, not the other way around. Change does not happen by finding reasons, it happens when we realize that change is neccessary.``

One priest asked if bringing up the issue of ordaining women was not, in effect, creating a polarization in the church.

``There was a time when blacks were not admitted to the seminary; when blacks and whites could not worship together,`` Osiek said. ``Were we creating division and polarity when we asked whether that was right?``